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• International Scholars Raise Concerns over “an Attempt to Destroy a New Religious Movement” in South Korea

  On July 20, a webinar on a new religious movement in South Korea and its political, religious, and social dimensions with the recent COVID-19 crisis invited international scholars and experts in the field of religion, international law, and human rights.

  Titled “COVID-19 and Religious Freedom: Scapegoating Shincheonji in South Korea”, the webinar addressed the recent issues of aggressive attack from politically powerful conservative and fundamentalist Protestant churches in the country on a newly-established, fast-growing Christian denomination named 'Shincheonji (New Heaven and New Earth) Church of Jesus' founded in 1984.

  The new Christian movement by Shincheonji has become a target of “persecution from fundamentalist protestants” because of its successful religious expansion “from the conservative and fundamentalist protestants who see Shincheonji as competitors and want to destroy it," said Massimo Introvigne as an Italian sociologist of religion who studied Shincheonji before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and published the first account of the religious group in English.

  Alessandro Amicarelli, Chairman European Federation for Freedom of Belief, pointed out that the South Korean authorities problematized Shincheonji as a cause of the COVID-19 crisis to shut down the church. “Already 30 other people were tested positive before the patient 31 (a member of Shincheonji criticized for the widespread of the virus). Many Chinese including ones from Wuhan had visited Daegu (of South Korea) and infection spread,” he said.

  Willy Fautre, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), said that the recent attack on Shincheonji can be viewed as an attempt by the fundamentalist Protestant groups in South Korea to weaken and destroy the competitor in the religious market. He added, "Human rights violations against Shincheonji members through coercive conversion program (also known as 'deprogramming') with kidnapping and confinement for the last decade have been made as a result of the failure of competition from the Protestant churches in the country."

  Ciaran Burke, Associate Professor in University of Derby, said that the South Korean health authorities explicitly link Shinchoenji and outbreak of the COVID-19 until now even though a greater link between the virus and confirmation cases has been found in other churches. He also expressed concerns over “collecting personal information of 300,000 domestic and international Shincheonji members by the government which is a possible violation of international agreement, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) South Korea ratified in 1990.”

  The prosecution initiated investigation of Shincheonji leaders including founder Man Hee Lee for his alleged role in the widespread of the COVID-19. Three Shincheonji officials were arrested on July 8 on a charge of playing a role in major outbreak at its early stage by “(submitting) inaccurate list of members.”

  “The authorities ignored requests to change the word ‘sect’ in their official reports when referring to Shincheonji church. Local governments encouraged the residents to report Shincheonji congregation and facilities to the authorities, creating stigma that the members were to be treated as criminals,” said a Shincheonji official in the webinar.

  A recent statement issued by “families of the deceased and victims of COVID-19” wrote that "the thousands of the damage and deaths of Koreans reflect the failure of initial response to contain the virus by the government." It added that the Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae “allowed COVID-19 patients from China to enter Korea, leading to a widespread outbreak of the virus across the country, which resulted in the deaths of the Korean people.” It also stated that she is trying to avoid her responsibility for the damage by “giving direct orders to prosecutors for a raid and arrests against Shincheonji Church”.

  A leading South Korean TV network, MBC reported that a recently conducted screening at Daegu, epicenter of COVID-19 major outbreak within South Korea added the weight to the failure of initial response to contain the virus by the government. The report, citing analysis from a local university hospital, inferred that at least 180,000 of the total population of 2.4 million people in the city of Daegu were infected with the COVID-19, 27 times to the official 6,800 confirmed cases. Most of the confirmation cases, over 5,000, are members of Shincheonji Church as their personal information was collected by the government, while the remaining 180,000 potential infections have not been investigated.

  Press Release of the Department of Public Relations

  Heavenly Culture, World Peace, and the Restoration of Light

• Congress President’s official visit to Georgia

  Strasbourg, 20 February 2020 – The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Anders Knape, will pay an official visit to Georgia from 22 to 25 February 2020, organised in the framework of the Georgian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Accompanied by Congress Secretary General Andreas Kiefer, the president will hold meetings with senior representatives of national and local Georgian institutions and authorities. The talks will focus, among other things, on the decentralisation strategy that the Georgian government has just adopted in response, in particular, to the recommendations made by the Congress following its monitoring visit in 2018. Other topics of discussion will be the priorities of the Georgian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, the Congress's co-operation with the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) and the Congress's co-operation programmes in the country. 

  In Tbilisi, Anders Knape will meet with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lasha Darsalia and the Vice-premier and Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure, Mrs Maya Tskitishvili. He will also hold meetings with the Deputy Chairman of Parliament, Mr Kakhaber Kuchava, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the head of the Georgian Delegation to the Congress and President of NALAG, Mr Kakha Kaladze, and the Public Defender, Ms Lomjaria Nino.

  Meetings are also scheduled in Gori with the Mayor, Mr Konstantin Tavzarashvili, and the Governor of Shida Kartli region, Mr Giorgi Khojevanishvili.

  Meetings with the Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr Irakli Kobakhidze, and with the members of the Georgian delegation to the Congress will complete the visit.

   

  The Congress comprises two chambers: the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions. It has 324 full and 324 substitute members, who represent more than 150,000 European local and regional authorities.

  President of the Congress: Anders Knape (Sweden, EPP/CCE), President of the Chamber of Local Authorities: Xavier Cadoret (France, SOC/G/PD), President of the Chamber of Regions: Gunn Marit Helgesen (Norway, EPP/CCE).

  Political groups: Group of Socialists, Greens and Progressive Democrats (SOC/G/PD), Group of the European Peoples Party (EPP/CCE), Independent Liberal and Democratic Group (ILDG), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR)

   

• China International Education College to open in Tbilisi

  China International Education College is founded by China International Education Group. Various educational institutions in China, Europe and Asia are successfully operating under the umbrella of this group.

  Our institute is dedicated to teaching Chinese, organizing multifaceted cultural and cognitive events that will help Georgian society to better understand Chinese culture, as well as deepen multilateral relations and cooperation between China and Georgia.

  Our Institute is the first fully independent private institute of its kind in Georgia. It is worth noticing that the China International Education group is the one of the important investors in Georgia in the field of education, currently investing approximately 3 million GEL, and plans to invest in vocational education in the future.

  On January 11, 2020, at 15:00, at the headquarters of the China International Education College, Andrew and Meliton Balanchivadze Ave. # 43, the official opening ceremony of the China International Education College will be held.

  Invited guests are Ambassador of China to Georgia - Ms. Lee Ian, guests from Ministry of Education, state and public figures, also specially for this day, for the first time senior statesmen will come from China : Mr. Wu Ni - Director of the Institute for Education Development and Reforms of the Chinese Academy of Education, Mr. Xu Zhengzhong - Director of the Institute for Education Development and Reforms and other guests.

  The following people will give speeches at the ceremony : Mr. Kang Zheng – founder of the institute, Ms. Eli Elisashvili – Director, Mr. Wu Ni and Mr. Xu Zhengzhong.

  This event will also include a presentation of the first Chinese-Georgian dictionary, translated by the director of the Institute - Eli Elisashvili, published in China, and second edition will be performed in Georgia.

• Forced Conversion that Violates Human Rights Becomes an International Problem

  On 29 November, Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) from Italy and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) from Belgium hosted a seminar on human rights entitled “Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements: An International Problem”.

  This seminar, held in Seoul, South Korea, was devoted to the protection of the rights of religious minorities targeted by the majority groups, particularly in the context of anti-human rights situations such as the forced conversion that occurred in Korea.

  Forced conversion, also known as “Deprogramming”, is a social issue that causes human rights violations by kidnapping and detaining the members of religious groups labeled as “cults” by their opponents in order to compel them to abandon their faith.

  More than 80 participants including legal experts, journalists, and civil society representatives reviewed the current situation of forced conversion and discussed solutions to defend the freedom of faith and human rights that have become the norm of the international community.

  Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of CESNUR as well as an Italian sociologist, stressed that forced conversion is conducted through the mainstream by saying, “Korean deprogrammers are specialized pastors from the mainline churches, most of them Presbyterian."

  "The protests that commemorate the victims from forced conversion were mentioned in the 2019 U.S. State Department Report on Religious Freedom, including violations of religious freedom in the year 2018. However, there were new cases of deprogramming even after their death," he criticized.

  Regarding the multi-dimensional strategy to solve such phenomenon, Willy Fautré, Founder and Director of HRWF stated several suggestions; pointing at the responsibility of the leadership of the Presbyterian Church which tolerates, endorses, and maybe encourages such a practice; developing advocacy at the UN and in organs defending freedom of religion or belief; prosecuting those who encourage people to perpetrate an act of abduction and confinement.

  In an open letter, signed by 15 international NGOs including CAP-LC and HRWF, to the South Korean President Moon Jae In on July 24^th, it said, “South Korea may well be the last democratic country in the world where deprogramming is still tolerated” and asked the President to “investigate in-depth accusations of forcible deprogramming, put a stop to this obnoxious practice, and hold those responsible fully accountable.”

  Meanwhile, South Korea was elected to serve the 5th term on the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 17th. South Korea’s mission to the UN said that it plans “to participate in the international efforts to respond to human rights crises around the world.” Participants urged the Korean government to respond to the issue of forced conversion which is still threatening the human rights of its people.

• Turkmenistan is hosting the International Conference “Rational use of water resources - key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”

  On November 5-6, 2019, the International Conference “Rational use of water resources – key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” was held in the hotel “Yildiz” of Ashgabat which gathered more than 60 experts from 10 countries of the world. The representatives of nine international and regional organizations which are implementing the projects in the field of water resources management took part in the work of the conference.

  The State Committee for Water Management of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan initiated the hosting of the given Conference. The Global Water Partnership provided assistance and practical support in the arrangement of this international meeting. 

  The participants of the Conference reported on the attainments and achievements of their respective countries, shared experience gathered and determined the most pertinent vectors of expanding and deepening regional cooperation in the scope of reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 6 -    ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.    A number of reports of the Conference were dedicated to the measures realized by the countries of the region on reaching the target 6.5 which aims to implement the integrated water resources management at all levels by 2030, including the trans- boundary cooperation whenever applicable.    

  The discussions on the role of the water partnership at the national and regional levels in assessing the progress of resolving this issue took place. In the result of the discussions held, the participants formulated the ideas on strengthening regional cooperation, as well as enriched their understanding of the role and opportunities of each party engaged in the process of implementing the principles of integrated water resources management.    

  Upon completion of the main programme of the Conference, the participants visited the objects equipped with water saving technologies. The hosting country also prepared a cultural programme for the esteemed guests, during which they found an opportunity to visit the Turkmen “Alabay” dog breed nursery-garden in Ak-Bugday region where they witnessed how carefully and passionately the Turkmen people preserve their traditions and national cultural heritage.